World Cup Qualifying (Cycle 0)
The World Cup in this inaugural cycle will feature 32 teams, with no automatic spot given to a host. 206 of the 207 available teams will compete to qualify for the final tournament. (South Sudan was not a member of FIFA at this time, and will not compete.) Qualified Teams No teams have qualified yet. Confederation Distribution The distribution by confederation for the 2014 World Cup will be: * Europe (UEFA): 14 places * Africa (CAF): 5 places * Asia (AFC): 4 or 5 places * South America (CONMEBOL) 4 or 5 places * North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3 or 4 places * Oceania (OFC): 0 or 1 place UEFA and CAF have a guaranteed number of places, whereas the number of qualifiers from other confederations is dependent on play-offs between Asia's fifth-placed team, CONMEBOL's fifth-placed team, CONCACAF's fourth-placed team, and Oceania's first-placed team. A draw will determine the pairings between the four teams involved. There is no automatic spot given to a tournament host. 'Tiebreakers' For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages using a league format, the method used for separating teams level on points is the same for all Confederations, as decided by FIFA itself. If teams are even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams will be ranked by: # goal difference in all group matches # greater number of goals scored in all group matches # greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams # goal difference in matches between the tied teams # greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams # greater number of away goals scored in matches between the tied teams if only two teams are tied If teams are still equal then a single play-off at a neutral venue will be played. If scores are level after 90 minutes in the play-off, then two 15-minutes periods of extra time and (if required) a penalty shoot-out would determine the winner. For FIFA World Cup qualifying stages using a home-and-away knockout format, the team that has the higher aggregate score over the two legs progresses to the next round. In the event that aggregate scores finish level, the away goals rule is applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs progresses. If away goals are also equal, then thirty minutes of extra time are played, divided into two fifteen-minutes halves. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, i.e. if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team qualifies by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals are scored during extra time, the tie is decided by penalty shoot-out. Qualification Summary 'AFC' Main Article: World Cup Qualifying - AFC (Cycle 0) 45 of 46 AFC national teams entered qualification. Qualification begins with two rounds of two-leg knockout qualification rounds, reducing the number of teams to 20. The third stage consists of 5 groups of 4 teams, with the top 2 teams in each group advancing into 2 groups of 5 teams. The top two teams from those groups directly qualify for the World Cup, while the two third-place teams will compete in a play-off for the spot in the intercontinental play-off. 'Current Stage (Fourth Round)' Main Article: World Cup Qualifying - AFC (Cycle 0) - Fourth Round |'Group B' |} 'CAF' Main Article: World Cup Qualifying - CAF (Cycle 0) 52 of 54 CAF national teams entered qualification. Qualification begins with a first round of two-leg knockout ties, reducing the number of teams to 40. The second round consists of 10 groups of 4 teams. The 10 group winners advance to the third round, which consists of 5 two-leg knockout ties. The winners from the third round directly qualify for the World Cup. 'Current Stage (Second Round)' Main Article: World Cup Qualifying - CAF (Cycle 0) - Second Round |'Group B''' |'Group C' |-valign=top |'Group D' |'Group E' |'Group F' |-valign=top |'Group G' |'Group H' |'Group I' |-valign=top | |'Group J' |} 'CONCACAF' Main Article: World Cup Qualifying - CONCACAF (Cycle 0) All 35 CONCACAF national teams entered qualification. Qualification begins with a round of two-leg knockout ties, reducing the number of teams to 30. The winners from the first round join teams ranked 7th and below in 6 groups of 4 teams. The 6 group winners join teams ranked 1-6 in 3 groups of 4. The top two teams from each group advance to the fourth round, a single group of 6. The top three teams directly qualify for the World Cup, while the 4th place team advances to the intercontinental play-off. 'Current Stage (Third Round)' Main article: World Cup Qualifying - CONCACAF (Cycle 0) - Third Round |'Group B' |'Group C' |} 'CONMEBOL' Main Article: World Cup Qualifying - CONMEBOL (Cycle 0) All 10 CONMEBOL national teams entered qualification. The format for qualification involves all 10 national teams of CONMEBOL. Each team plays all other teams both home and away, for a total of 18 matches. The top four teams directly advance to the World Cup, and the 5th place team advances to the intercontinental play-off. 'Current Stage (Not Started)' 'OFC' Main Article: World Cup Qualifying - OFC (Cycle 0) All 11 OFC national teams entered qualification. Qualification begins with the four lowest ranked teams competing in a single round-robin tournament, where the group winner advances, reducing the number of teams to 8. The second round doubles as the group stage OFC Nations Cup, with the four semi-finalists advancing to the third round. The third round consists of the remaining four teams competing in a home-and-away double round-robin, with the group winner advancing to the intercontinental play-off. 'Current Stage (Second Round)' Main Article: OFC Nations Cup (Cycle 0) |'Group B' |} 'UEFA' Main Article: World Cup Qualifying - UEFA (Cycle 0) All 53 UEFA national teams entered qualification. Qualification consists of 8 groups of 6 teams and 1 group of 5 teams, who will play each other in a double round robin home-and-away league format. The 9 group winners direclty qualify for the World Cup. The 9 runners up will be ranked according to all games except those against the sixth-placed team (for groups A through H). The top runner up will directly qualify for the World Cup, while the 8 remaining runners up will be paired up in a two-leg knockout series for the 4 remaining spots. 'Current Stage (Not Started)' |'Group B' |'Group C' |-valign=top |'Group D' |'Group E' |'Group F' |-valign=top |'Group G' |'Group H' |'Group I' |} 'Intercontinental play-offs' Main Article: World Cup Qualifying - Intercontinental play-offs (Cycle 0) |} |} Top Goalscorers 564 goals have been scored so far in this tournament. Players highlighted in bold are still active in competition. 8 goals * Robin Nelisse * Keisuke Honda 7 goals * Emad Mohammed * Kenwyne Jones * Berdi Samyradow * Alexander Geynrikh 6 goals * Gonzalo Higuain * Daryl Lounds * Humberto Suazo * Carlos Ruiz * Georges Gope-Fenepej * Maksim Shatskikh * Salomon Rondon 5 goals * Peter Byers * Tim Cahill * Rob Friend * Felipe Caicedo * Al-Saify Odai * Ryoichi Maeda * Dario Monteiro * Tyler Wilson * Luis Suarez * Le Cong Vinh 4 goals * Harry Kewell * Zeiko Lewis * Dwayne De Rosario * Christian Benitez * Kervens Belfort * Ali Karimi * Younis Mahmoud * Abdullah Deeb * Imad Al-Hosni * Chad Gould * Sebastian Soria * Alzino Mohamad * Vincent Simon * Jason Scotland * Kevon Carter 3 goals * Lionel Messi * Faouzi Mubarak Aaish * Pablo Escobar * Simeon Jackson * Falcao * Dayro Moreno * Kevon White * Jonathan Fana * Jose Elpys Espinal * Shalrie Joseph * Oscar Isaula * Vurlon Mills * Boaz Salossa * Javad Nekounam * Mohammad Gholmani * Andranik Teymourian * Boniface Ambani * Ja Cheol Koo * David Martinez * Jacques Haeko * Ju Manu Rai * Shane Smeltz * Fawzi Bashir * Oscar Cardozo * Tae-Se Jong * Eliseo Quintanilla * Khaleem Hyland * Ismail Matar * Daniel Michel * Akeeno Hazelwood ----